The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Indonesia's Foreign Policy

Abstract

This thesis is primarily concerned with how and why policy entrepreneurs succeed in promoting their ideas or policy proposals. In examining this, the thesis uses the case of Indonesia’s foreign and domestic policies regarding the protection of its own migrant workers who work abroad, particularly with the ratification of the 1990 United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW). There are three central questions that this thesis examines: (1) To what extent were the policy entrepreneurs important in shaping or playing roles in Indonesia’s foreign policy regarding the protection of its migrant workers and who were the main policy entrepreneurs?; (2) How did these policy entrepreneurs attempt to ensure that their policy proposals were adopted or their ideas heard?; and (3) Why were the policy entrepreneurs successful in promoting their ideas?

The thesis argues that the protection of Indonesian migrant workers has become a pressing issue in the context of nation’s foreign and domestic policies. This can be seen from the decision of Indonesia’s Kementerian Luar Negeri (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in 2002 to establish a special directorate to address the issue, namely the Directorate for the Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Agencies. Nonetheless, despite the establishment of this directorate, protection from this institution was still viewed as relatively poor since there were still numerous high-profile cases involving Indonesian migrant workers in cases related to torture and even some resulting in death. Recent policies developments, spurred by increasing democratisation, can be viewed as an improvement. This is demonstrated by Indonesia’s decision to ratify the CMW in 2012. With regard to this important decision, my empirical analysis showed that there were at least two categories of policy entrepreneurs that played important roles in influencing the decision: key figures operating within the important civil society organisations who worked under the umbrella movement People’s Alliance for the Ratification of 1990 Convention (ARRAK 90) and several elected members of the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR – Indonesia’s House of Representatives).

Overall, the thesis argues that policy entrepreneurs were successful if: (1) they advocated cogent policy proposals; (2) these proposals were based on normative principles; and (3) they promoted their ideas with persistence. Each of these three factors is examined in the case studies. In testing the notion of persistence, the thesis measures activities such as: conducting a series of demonstrations; writing papers; and holding lobbying luncheons or dinners.

The thesis concludes that there were two success factors that brought Indonesia’s foreign policy shift from non-ratification to ratification: coalition-building and advocacy persistence. In coalition-building, policy entrepreneurs believed that the emergence of ARRAK 90 significantly transformed the policy context. Working in coalition, policy entrepreneurs undertook continuous activities in terms of substantive work, demonstrations, and lobbying. As the policy context changed and window of opportunity presented themselves, policy entrepreneurs demonstrated enormous persistence in presenting their ideas. In this context, the policy entrepreneurs continuously pushed their demands, writing to influence public opinion, conducting various demonstrations for the purpose of raising public awareness, seizing government attention, and being persistent in demanding the adoption of their proposals. All these factors, particularly coalition-building and persistence, answer the primary questions of this thesis: to what extent were policy entrepreneurs important in policy change, how did they achieve change, and why were policy entrepreneurs successful in promoting their policy proposals?